Double-Take
by Vanessa S. Quest
Summary: This is based on the Comico Comics verse for Classic Jonny Quest. In this story, Xin is up to his usual with plots of domination, and more nefariously, to take a pot-shot at Dr. Quest and his family with an old foe- Korchev.


Double-Take: Classic Jonny Quest by Vanessa S. Quest

The crisp cool air at 13,000 feet above ground level frosted the windows outside the Quest II Jet. Inside the much more comfortably tempered cabin, the occupants readied themselves for the latest assignment.

Dr. Quest, sitting co-pilot to Race Bannon's pilot, doubled in reviewing case information while his son and his ward sawed logs, buckled in the lush seats eight feet back. Bandit had curled in between both slumbering boys, fast asleep himself. As it should be at 0200 local time!

"According to Korvin, Agent Sardinas has not made contact in days."

"The real question is do we think Dr. Xin has killed him out-right, or detained him?"

Dr. Quest rolled his shoulder cynically, "Xin rarely leaves survivors—particularly traitors or failures… depending on what brought Sardinas to his _attention_ , I'm afraid it doesn't look good for the old chap."

"Normally I'd agree with you, but no body has turned up, and Xin has always been one for theatrics."

The redheaded man gave a curt nod. "We must be prepared. Whatever Xin is planning, he's dangerous."

"You don't have to warn me twice, that he's targeting _infrastructure_ … he's making a big move. We both know how much of a megalomaniac he is, it looks like he's going to attempt a _coup_."

"I'm afraid it might be larger than even that. From what Sardinas sent down the wire, he's going to disrupt all communications of a large swath of prime real estate, and has the political sway and armory to hold it if he catches the locals _off guard_." His eyes fell toward the back of the cabin. This was hardly a harmless expedition, and he hated that he had no better options with the boys, but he simply refused to leave them _vulnerable_ and _alone_.

For a fleeting moment he wondered if he should have imposed on Kathy, while she had certainly handled herself well against Xin on her previous sortie with the maniac it was a bit much to ask her to knowingly do so again, without reinforcements.

He shook the thought from his mind, no, it was best the boys were with he and Race, this is what they did and this is what they knew how to handle.

"Another three more hours to log and then we'll rendezvous with Phil's runner."

Benton gave a grim nod. The urgency of it was palpable. Several agents had been working to infiltrate and disrupt Xin's grandiose scheme, and while they had a strong inkling of what it was, his timelines were still highly secretive. They'd sent word to the local governing bodies, but that hadn't been without risks, Xin clearly had inside men and that sharing of information had likely been what cost Sardinas his _life_.

-CJQ-

At an airstrip in an undisclosed location along the borders of the Tibetan and Xinjiang Provinces, China—

Several militarized all-terrain vehicles lined the packed earth just outside of the paved asphalt landing strip. In the second car of the caravan, an older man who's uniform indicated his status as a General waited impatiently as the Quest II Jet was unload of its passengers.

The air had a permanent chill from the elevation, while they were below the permafrost line, the weather had been uncooperative, and in fact almost hostile. The runway had slick patches of ice that were being salted regularly to maintain the touch-pad.

"General Sing, a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance." Dr. Quest said as he disembarked the craft, a single duffel at his ready, he was preceded by Race, the boys and Bandit behind him on the stairs.

"Ah, Dr. Quest, I hope the flight was without trouble."

"Indeed, we kept in front of the cold-front, and a good thing—by my instrumentations, it looks as though it'll deposit quite a load of ice."

"Then we are most fortuitous that you could get here before the airstrip would be forced to close. Come, join me, I will escort you back to headquarters."

Inside the chilly hummer, the boys sat sandwiched in the middle row between Race and Dr. Quest, Bandit on the floorboards as General Sing turned to face the motley crew.

"We have not received any further contact from your man Agent Sardinas, but our contact has agreed to meet with us to go over the latest information."

"Very good, I see there are a fleet of vehicles, while I understand the sensitivity your government has particularly with the Tibetan province, I do hope they are taking this threat seriously and are preparing as best as they can."

"Ah, yes." Sing blew out a depreciative sigh with just as equally a dejected smile, "The mastermind of Xin, to know where to strike that would cause the most discord whether his actions are successful of _not_. China on the global stage will be made to look as aggressors for simply maintaining our borders and our obligations, but we will not yield to his selfish power-grab."

"If we can get ahead of him, we might be able to prevent any troops from being moved at all." Race offered.

"That's right, if we can disrupt his weapon cache and disarm his scramblers, even Xin isn't delusional enough to think he could take on the Chinese Army with his private one. He's better at math than that."

Jonny and Hadji looked at Dr. Quest and Race, "What'd'ya mean, dad? How big is _his_ army?"

"A fifth of the size of the regional army the Chinese government would be able to mobilize for a blitzkrieg. This terrain doesn't lend itself to open tactics, but it also has several challenges for clearing an established guerilla operation."

"…Because the mountains are easier to hold than to storm?" Jonny asked.

"If the satellites are nonfunctional, the Chinese government would be forced to use open tactics, it would prevent the use of tactical strikes and air-raids."

"The _weather_ does that, though, Hadji..." Jonny looked at Race as if asking him to confirm it.

"In part, there's likely turrets, and laser-guided missiles that could operate through an ice-storm, but bunker-busters are precise, and without the satellites they'd be off the table." Race responded.

General Sing smiled, "I see you are well abreast of modern warfare."

"I hope it doesn't come to that." Dr. Quest said direly, "General Sing, will we be stationed at the HQ as our hub of operations?"

"Yes, doctor." The older man gave a stiff nod, "The villages nearby are teeming with Xin's free-agents, it will be much safer."

Benton glanced over the boys then back to Sing. Good, they were on the same page _there_.

-CJQ-

At the mess hall of the Provincial HQ, Race crossed his arms.

"I should've known…"

With a sly smirk, Benton offered, "I'd have thought you _did_ know."

Race side-eyed the doctor before he returned his indignant look toward Jade.

Jezebel "Jessie" Jade gave the white-haired man a flirty smile, "Happy to see me?"

"Jade!" Jonny beamed, "Are you going to help us kick Xin's butt once and for all?"

" _Jonny_." Dr. Quest chided.

"I'm taking a hands-off approach on this go-around, but I know where you need to get to."

Race's ears picked up at that, "You think he's even more dangerous than usual…?"

She gave Race an affirming, coy smirk. "He's always likened himself an emperor, and if you don't think he'll hold a grudge for costing him it, you're kidding yourself. I'll get you in, but you'll be on your own, handsome."

"We appreciate your support, Jade." Benton added civilly. "Should we take this somewhere more private to discuss?"

"Absolutely, Dr. Quest, allow my man Huang to take you to your quarters. The sooner you can start, the sooner we can put a stop to Xin's dastardly plot."

Benton looked over the eager young man in his early-mid twenties as he came to attention. "Oh, yes sir. Right this way, please."

-CJQ-

"But _dad_!"

"Young man, it's not up for debate. You and Hadji are to stay here, Jade is right. Xin is not going to take defeat humbly. He's dangerous, and doubly-so with what the stakes are."

"But I'm not _afraid_ of Xin, dad!" Jonny whined. Hadji was nodding along in agreement from behind him, but also nodding to Dr. Quest's points. Crud, he was really in the thick if Hadji wouldn't jump on the bandwagon! "Besides, you and Race'll need our help!"

Dr. Quest crossed his arms at that comment.

"Really, dad! There's not a single person outside of this room with as much experience as Hadji or I have in breaking into and out of Dr. Xin's hideouts. We're practically old-hands at it!"

"Jonny, this is not up for debate. I need you both to stay behind and be our _trusted_ eyes and ears. He has informants here and as you so eloquently put it, you're _practically_ old hands at this."

"Aw, rats." Jonny fumed, he knew his dad had just delivered the check-mate. "Fine then… we'll keep an eye out for the leaks."

Race put a hand on Jonny's bangs and gave them a ruffle, "That's a sport. We need to divide and conquer, here. We'll be back here in no time, and then you boys can report back what you've found out. We're relying on you."

The boy's bolster fizzled to compliance on that note. "No fair double-teaming us."

"Jonny, we're not double-teaming you, this _is_ the strategy- divide and conquer, but to do that we need to do some information gathering of our own. Both of you be _extremely_ careful, and if things get too hot to handle, find Jade do you hear me?"

"Yes sir."

Benton gave Hadji an expectant look.

"Believe me, sir, we _will_." Hadji smiled in contrast to Jonny's brooding expression.

"That's more like it. We'll be back before you know it, by dinner at latest."

Jonny scowled at Hadji after the adults vacated the room. "Some backup."

Hadji smiled mischievously, "But Dr. Quest is right, Jonny. We _know_ someone is spying for Dr. Xin here and we will have an easier time finding them. We are far better at sneaking around."

"Alright, then, let's get _to it_. Bandit, come on boy!"

Both children split up to scout the hallways and see what they were working with, meeting back up after a handful of minutes.

"By my count, there are four floors." Hadji offered.

"Yeah, and there's three branches in this building, and two more where they store the vehicles and the mess-hall. Let's go floor by floor working our way back to the middle and see what we can find, meet back at the room by 4."

"And if we find anything?"

Jonny shrugged, "We have a lot of snooping to do and not a lot of time to do it, but if you find anything big, I guess we should tell Jade and then dad and Race when they get back."

"Alright, be careful!"

"You too!" They high-fived each other before taking the stairs in opposite directions.

By 1200 local time, Jonny'd already hit pay-dirt. He'd found Huang raising a signal to radio in that the Quests were heading over as anticipated. He felt mad that one of the General's men would betray them like that, and worse, that the creep was trying to give his dad and Race's positions away. What he didn't feel mad about was that he'd disabled that radio five minutes ago after he'd _found_ it hidden in a secret drawer. Huang might think he was transmitting clear as day, but Jonny'd crimped up the connectors and damaged the volume control, they'd get static if they were _lucky_ , and Huang would just think it was a weak connection—but that they were receiving him loud and clear.

Feeling like he might just be outwearing his welcome, the boy snuck out of his hiding spot and back into the hallway before darting further up.

Something about Huang being a spy ate at him, he seemed like a gopher, a low-man on the totem pole, not the guy who'd know about all the inner workings… No, he was a _lackey_ , and lackeys didn't get enough information together to out specially trained agents. In his bones he felt someone higher up was giving out _that_ information, and he knew to list to what his bones said.

He needed to find Hadji, maybe it was time to go snoop on General Sing.

-CJQ-

Hadji looked at Bandit while beaming a smile, he'd overheard two soldiers talking about purposely putting gaps in their posts so a shipment of guns could move through the patrol. It meant Xin didn't have enough materials yet to really mount his attack.

After hours of searching, he'd lucked into these two having this chat tucked out of the way in the shadows. Certain he could identify them, and that he could find where the shipment would pass through and _when_ , he headed back toward their room, he needed to tell Jonny what he'd found out.

If they timed it right, they might even be able to follow the weapons all the way back to their stockpile!

Hadji looked around the suite, Jonny wasn't there yet. He'd been on time, himself. With a tortured look at the wall-clock, he watched the time click past 1630. It was unlike Jonny to miss a check-point.

He spun on his heels, he needed to find Jade, pronto!

-CJQ-

1509, local time, Jonny spun into the room, excited as all get-out that Race was back early. Perfect, he'd be able to tell him all he found out and could check their hunches.

"Race, you're back early—where's dad? How'd it go?"

"Oh, there you are Jonny. The doc's with Hadji, I came here to see if I could spot you. Any good news for us?"

"You _bet_ , Race. Officer Huang is dirty, but he's a pretty small-fry, but then there were these two other guys, who guard the perimeter—they were talking about leaving open a gap in the perimeter so they could smuggle something through."

"Yeah? Where did they say they were going to do that?" Race asked, "That's some _great_ intel."

Jonny's smile faltered, "…There's a blind-spot near where they put up the vehicles, or at least if they each took five steps off their posts."

"Is that so? Did they say when they were going to do that?"

Jonny shook his head, "No, they didn't, but don't they normally do two-hour long shifts?"

"That they do, so we probably have another half hour."

Blue eyes flitted as he felt something sting his ankle, he looked at Race as his vision blurred out of focus completely, fainted.

-CJQ-

Sleepily, Jonny tugged his wrists, he didn't understand how he'd gotten to whatever hole in the wall this was. Last he remembered, he and Race had been in the room talking, and then he'd felt dizzy and passed out.

His head lolled around, he was surprised to see Race there with him, also tied up.

"Huh…? Race? What happened?"

"Jonny, you came to? What a relief." He turned to face the boy, "This might just go further up the food-chain than that Huang guy. Whoever got into our room gassed us, I think."

"You think it's General Sing?" Jonny retorted, "…Well, on a good note, dad and Hadji aren't here, so at least they didn't get caught!"

Race gave a healthy laugh, "Yeah, looks like we drew the short straw. Now let's see what we can do about these… ropes…" After several moments, the coarse ropes uncoiled to Race's feet. "Let me?"

Jonny nodded, still struggling into his ropes in vain. Race loosened them easily enough; the boy pulled his wrists free and began rubbing them tenderly. He gave the room a once-over. "What kind of place is this?"

"Well, I didn't see this room before when your dad and I were here earlier… but it looks like it's part of the same place."

"You mean we're in Xin's lair?"

"Afraid so, keep your wits to you, we'll have to see if we can find a way out."

The two walked around the room, taking in the space. There were several seams to the room, but nothing that budged. Jonny stopped at what looked to be a vent shaft. "Hey, Race—what do you think?" He thumbed toward the grate. "It looks like it might be big enough for us to get through."

"Hmm…" The white-haired man walked toward the grate and held his hand in front of it. "I feel air-flow, that's a good sign, and it doesn't look like there's a trip-switch on _this_ side at least."

He undid his belt buckle to use the flat-edge to unscrew the screen. Jonny bent forward to watch, admiring how resourceful Race was. He turned to sweep a glance across the room, the space felt pretty Spartan. He always thought empty rooms were supposed to seem bigger than they really were, but this place felt claustrophobic. "Race, why d'you think Xin brought us _here_?"

"Oh, same reason he does anything… I just think he _likes_ us." The man jested, he gave Jonny a look-over, "Don't worry we'll get out of this in no time."

A bright smile met him as if dispelling his notion that the boy was spooked at it. "Did you and dad _find_ what you were looking for before?"

The grate came off with a tug, and Race re-adorned his belt. "We _did_ , it's a sophisticated rig they have, or at least by how your dad tells it, so he wanted to pick up a laptop to connect in and shut down the controls. As for the armament, some plastique would do the trick for the cache I found, but there's no way that's the whole enchilada."

"Maybe we should look for the other stockpile while we wait for our ride?" Jonny offered incorrigibly.

"Yeah? Sounds better than waiting, and I wouldn't mind liberating a few of those pieces either. Come on, let's get to it." Race gestured for Jonny to enter the crawl-space before entering it himself.

-CJQ-

General Sing laced his fingers as he propped his elbows on the desk, frowning. He gestured for his man to press play on the recording, Dr. Quest, Hadji, Jade, Race, and Bandit hovering in varying degrees to see the screen.

"… _Korchev_." Race hissed, the image was clear as day— the 'gap' in the defenses was readily viewable by several of General Sing's surveillance cameras.

"Who knows about your cameras, General?" Dr. Quest asked levelly, furious as he was at seeing his son lugged like a sack of rice through a pre-arranged permeability in the base's defenses.

The General flipped pause on the image. "All of my men know there _are_ cameras. Only a small amount know _where_ most are, and an even smaller amount know where they _all_ are."

Jade smiled politely, "You think it was an oversight on their behalf?"

Benton nodded, "Hadji, you said you heard men speaking of this in a darkened stretch of corridor?"

The boy nodded glumly, "But they were speaking of smuggling _weapons_ …" He frowned, "And _those_ don't look like the men I heard speaking of it."

Pinching just above the bridge of his nose to alleviate the growing headache, Benton's eyes turned to meet his, "It is possible they'd try to use the same trick more than once, especially if it _worked_. Hadji, would you be able to identify them?"

The boy nodded, "Oh, yes sir. General Sing, do you have personnel photos for your guards?"

The man nodded, "Yes, I will have them pulled at once." He clicked a button on his desk, a female officer approached.

"General Sing, sir." She saluted.

"Captain Xiao, please assist young Hadji in looking through our personnel image files. Dr. Quest, Captain Xiao is one of my most loyal people."

"I'd have thought you'd said the same about Officer Huang." He said in rebuke, trying not to be just as cross as he felt.

Sing shook his head, "While he had never given me reason to _distrust_ him until now, Xiao has given me _ample_ reasons _to_ trust her."

The woman gave a wan smile, "Dr. Quest, I was tasked to move many of the cameras after they were _installed_."

"You see, we knew there had to be moles on the base, this was our best bet to see just how far up the latter the moles had gotten. Only the highest ranking of my reports knew where the cameras were to be installed, the men Hadji speaks of would have only known there _were_ cameras, not where. Huang, regrettably, knew _where_ they were supposed to be, and that is why one of the cameras was placed in his office."

"Trust, but verify, huh?" Race threw in, "But he had that radio slipped in pretty well and was not in regular contact with Xin, at least in his _office_."

"I do not trust _before_ I verify." The General said flatly, "And he did not use this radio before. He must have other means to courier information. I am surprised your son was able to find this radio so easily when my own people had not."

Benton unclenched his jaw, willing himself to calm down. "My boys are both highly resourceful, and have the advantage of looking at this situation with fresh eyes." His hand moved down his beard; that had been true up until Korchev was thrown back in the mix.

"General, we need to find the boy and soon. He'll have taken him back to Xin, but the longer he keeps Jonny, the more he builds rapport and shared experiences— That's the linchpin. Korchev is _dangerous_ , and masquerading around as a trusted ally."

"I am _very_ familiar with that, indeed. The supplies you've requested are being prepared, but Dr. Xin must know that you know by _now_."

Benton concurred to that, "We still must hurry. From what we saw, he is not ready yet, he's still weeks away, I can only assume this is a _diversion_ … but he knows it's one I cannot ignore."

"Then we shall waste no more time, I have a scarcity of trustworthy allies to send in with you to the belly of the beast—those that I _can spare_ are invaluable to me, and will undoubtedly be so for you."

Jade smiled, "Why, General, that's sweet of you to say."

Race gave the woman an affirmative nod.

"Jade and Xiao will serve you well."

The petite woman, only a head-and-a-half taller than Hadji herself at 4'11" smiled at the team. "My expertise includes stealth, and black ops, though I am usually in the rear as technical field support."

"Black ops?" Race's eyebrow shot up, he didn't know why it surprised him, maybe because she looked so _young_ , barely an adult herself.

"I have 7 years of experience, yes."

"Seven?! Mind if I ask how _old_ you are?" Race croaked.

"Ah, Captain Xiao is a 7000 year old water dragon." General Sing said seriously, clearly unwilling to divulge the woman's personal information.

"Well, that makes sense then." Race walked it back. He and Benton exchanged a look. There'd been rumors about the communist country starting them young, but cripes, that would've had her running tactical missions at Hadji or Jonny's age, practically!

"General, do not make me sound so old and sagely, I am but 3000." She bowed and then gestured Hadji back toward her laptop. "Now, young sir, let us find our culprits."

"Please do so, then refresh yourselves, I expect you will be able to move out at 2200 hours."

-CJQ-

Inside their own war-room, Benton and Race exchanged a knowing look. Hours. Korchev had had Jonny alone, working on him for _hours_ now.

"We need to formulate a plan." Benton said evenly. The creeping dread he felt not knowing but suspecting what Korchev was doing to his boy was enough to make his blood boil.

The white-haired man nodded at his compatriot, "Something the kiddo would spot that the other guards wouldn't."

Benton nodded in agreement. He prided in just how observant Jonny had always been, "And in a shuffle, a cue…"

Race glanced over the room, there hadn't even been signs of a struggle. However Korchev overpowered the boy had been quick, and entirely unexpected by the boy.

Subconsciously, Benton twirled his wedding band. He'd taken to wearing it of late to re-acclimate to the carbon-fibered ring. The non-conductive ring held a comfortable weight and had been a constant companion of his ring finger for years and years, including the year after his wife, Judy, had died. At some point though, he'd simply gotten out of the habit of putting it on.

At one point it almost felt like an anchor- a _weight_ , a constant reminder that he'd been alone for so long, and why—and he'd stopped wearing it. After he and Kathy had gotten engaged though, he realized the meaning of the ring had changed to him. It felt like a promise that he wasn't alone, as though he was holding the hand of the woman- women he'd loved, really.

He pulled it off his ring finger. "Race, see if this fits."

The man gawked, "Benton, that's your—"

"I know, but more importantly, Jonny'll know. He'll know, and he'll know you and I both had a plan to deal with Korchev. Sorry to say, it's not Kevlar so try not to test it that way."

Race shook his head in a laugh, but took the proffered ring and slipped it on his finger, "And here I'd have thought you'd go down on a bent knee." He tried it on his left ring finger and was surprised it fit, snug but it was on. "It's tight, but at least that means it won't slide off."

"Good. Don't lose it." He shot back, "As for a call-command…"

"We don't know what Korchev's tapped into over the years, but we do know he's with Jonny now… so if it comes to it, I say we use what we've got, and that's a 7000 year old dragon."

Benton smiled deviously, "Ah, 3000, if asked twice."

The men nodded. "Alright, let's prepare Jade, Hadji, and Xiao."

-CJQ-

From within the crawlspace, Jonny watched a handful of soldiers moving crates with a hand-dolly. In a loud whisper he tried to catch his companion's attention from a few feet further.

"Race… _Race,_ check it out!"

The bodyguard craned his neck to face his charge. "Whaddaya see, kiddo?"

"Crates… and lots of 'em!"

Race reversed his belly-crawl so he could get back to the grate Jonny was looking through. There was a bifurcation that looked to be headed toward that direction. "Let's see where _that_ branch goes." He encouraged, gesturing with his shoulder.

"Alright." Jonny whispered back.

Quietly, they made their way through that duct-work until a compressor and large fan obscured further lateral motion.

"Hmm, let's see what's going on 'down stairs' shall we?" Race offered, glancing through the last grate before the blower. With the utmost of stealth, he pushed open the grate, keeping a firm hold so to be sure it wouldn't fall with a clatter. Cautiously, he looked around, he didn't see any soldiers, but he _did_ see a doorway. "Alright, I think it's safe, let's check it out."

He pushed the grate further over so that it wouldn't occlude their exit. He lowered himself down then took the six inch drop between his extended arms and floor. He then reached back up to the boy. Jonny shimmied his way through the opening and let Race catch him as he dropped for the ground a good three and a half feet from his unaided reach. Race gestured a shushing finger and then nodded off toward the corner of the room where there was some cover.

With a stealthy nod, Jonny moved toward the cover, boxes and boxes of equipment. Jonny saw a box with an upended lid and peeked into it.

"Oh wow, that looks like a QSW-06 and a Type 64! Why'd they have the same guns as the Chinese Special Forces?"

Race took a look into the box too, "There's a CS5 and Type 67, too. Huh, a CF-06? I wouldn't have expected a corner-shooter, let's see if there's any ammo to go with it." He fished out the QSW-06 and the CF-06. The suppressed pistol would be the most handy, but he wasn't about to turn a blind corner with the kid in tow. Jonny snuck a second QSW-06 in his waistband too, pulling his shirt back over it then went back to routing through the box for the right caliber ammo.

There wasn't much ammo at all, he pocketed two boxes of each and had Jonny do the same, he also had him pull a few extra magazines from the like-modeled guns so they could load them up for a faster change-out.

The springs, Race noted, were still pretty rigid. These guns had probably never been fired. He hoped none of them would be duds, and that they'd been lubricated at least once in the last month. The idea of blowing off his hand wasn't exactly a cheery thought.

"Kiddo, let's get back up there and off the ground."

"But Race, they had way more crates than this! We gotta find out where they're putting _those_ …"

He gave Jonny a stern look, "And we _will_ , but if we get in a fire-fight that's going to escalate this escape attempt pretty quickly."

Jonny frowned, "Someone's coming!" He ducked back behind the boxes. Race nodded, following as he spotted the door crack open and then push wide. Jonny pressed tight to the crate to minimize his frame.

Race again signaled him to keep quiet as he edged closer to the corner of the crate, he wanted to see just how many of them there were. What luck—three of them. He gesticulated to Jonny to move further over.

The blond nodded, his nimble hands fished into the box and pulled out a box of ammo for the larger calibered guns which had been on the top of the stack. Race gave him an asking look but the boy just shook his head and did the same shushing gesture.

He lobbed the box to the opposite corner of the room. The guards immediately pivoted toward the sound.

Race clipped in the magazine and blew out a calming breath, he took three quick shots, the men laid out quickly, two groaning from their wounds.

"Up and at-em." Race barked, all but tossing Jonny up to the vent opening.

Jonny pulled himself the rest of the way up and crawled inside as Race jumped up to follow.

"Move it, _move it_!"

He pushed the grate back closed before rapidly crawling back to the T-section.

"Of all the risky…" He muttered.

"It worked, we got them, Race!" Jonny said excitedly, not seeming to realize he'd just _alerted_ them to the escape.

"…Yeah, we sure _got_ them alright, but now they know we're not _contained_."

"…Oh," Jonny frowned, his impulse had been second nature to _stop_ the bad guys, he didn't really realize the negative ramification until Race said so.

"Well that bird's already flown the coup, so now we gotta find a way out of here… and hopefully still stop Xin before he can use his contingency."

Jonny gulped, "What do you think his contingency plan is, Race?"

"Less talking, more moving." The man responded harshly, that seemed to answer it for Jonny more clearly, because he _didn't_ ask again.

After they'd cleared a football-field worth of ventilation, Race tugged Jonny's ankle to stop him.

"Let's see what's down here."

The boy turned to see Race open another grate, this room was darker than the other had been, he wasn't sure how he felt about it, it also looked pretty cramped. "Down _there_? It just looks like an electrician's closet—maybe an access panel."

"Exactly."

Jonny smiled, they could tamper with Xin's mechanical room. One thing Jonny was particularly exceptional at was _breaking_ access panels. "Race, let me see if I can work _my_ magic."

"That was my plan. Don't tell your dad, but I'd put money on your destructive abilities over _his_."

Practically glowing at the slightly backhanded compliment, Jonny eyed Race's belt. "Can I see your buckle?"

He slipped off his belt and handed it to the youth.

-CJQ-

"Dr. Xin, the prisoner has escaped. Agent _Bannon_ is moving according to plan." Reported Smee. "He killed one man, but hit the other two in their Kevlar."

"Has he reached _the room_ yet?"

"No sir, also, patrol reported a missing unit. It looks as though the rest of the Quests have made it back."

"Hmm, no matter. Keep me posted on the progress, Smee." Xin lifted a fine-china teacup to draw a sip of chai. Relishing in the little things, such as finally destroying the Quests once and for all, he simply decided to enjoy the _moment_.

-CJQ-

Jonny licked off the sweat beading on his upper lip as he wiggled further into the control panel to reach the wiring. He gave a firm set of tugs and finally pulled it loose. A microprocessor chip and thick gauge-wire separated.

"Jonny, the screen blacked out."

"Good. Let me know when you see it start to _smoke_." He replied, he stripped the insulation off the one wire to the still loosely connected chip and crossed the wire gingerly to a similarly prepped wire still connected to the main switchboard. His left hand shot back at the zap when the arcs met, he expected Race would be updating him soon.

"Uh-oh. Jonny, come on, we gotta get a move on it. Someone's coming."

"Hold on just another …few… seconds—got it!" He bridged another wire to ensure the short and wriggled back out of the tight space. "Race?"

The boy saw the bodyguard press flush to the side of the door, arm rose for a preemptive strike.

He spilled the first man as he entered, but the four behind him wrestled him down before he could go for the draw. "RACE!" Jonny cried out. His eyes had been so focused on that door that he didn't see the trap sprung over his own head.

He let out, "Oof!" when a soldier fell onto him, he barely caught himself on the equipment, banging his right side and arm on the fall but managing to not totally wipe out.

The heavy, in _his_ perspective _,_ goon quickly monkeyed his right arm into a tight grip.

"Hey! Get your hands offa me! Ow!" He struggled, _that_ ow comment had earned a bit more fight from Race until the soldier drew a gun and pressed it to Jonny's temple.

"Now, now, gentleman… Dr. Xin would like you to wait patiently for him." Race turned to see the speaker, shooting the man a death-glare.

"Have your guy ease off the boy, _now_."

"Oh, I think not." The man replied in cool indifference.

" _OW!_ " Jonny shot back, he stomped his foot on the instep of the armed soldier. The grip shifted and he was pinned back to them with a hand on his throat, with a firm squeeze, Jonny stopped struggling, he rolled his arm and shot Race a miserable look.

He _could_ breathe, but this galoot wasn't making it easy, that much was for sure.

"Jonny, it's going to be okay, kiddo. Try to relax." Race coached, he gave his own glare at the soldiers, he raised his hand and tossed the pistol he knew they could see, but not the one he didn't think they saw.

"Much better, Mr. Bannon—Mr. Quest, right this way." Smee said with a toothless smile.

Jonny was marched past Race, still trying to struggle his way loose as they made their way down the hallway. After several minutes, they were back in the same room they'd started, only now, the vent was welded shut.

With an excessively hard shove, Jonny was spilled back into the room, he caught himself before he could hit the floor head-first and rolled onto his back to glare at the –lady?! The soldier crossed her arms and gave him an angry look.

"Smee, I _could_ shoot him. He wouldn't be as willing to escape if I shot him in the leg, for instance. And if he did, he'd leave an easier trail to follow."

Race shoved past the woman to take a stance between she and Jonny. "Back off, lady."

The door slammed back shut sealing them back into the room, alone.

"Kiddo, are you hurt any?"

"…Just my pride," he frowned, he rubbed his elbow, that was going to bruise up on him, he knew that much.

-CJQ-

Some say diamonds are a girl's best friend, but Jezebel Jade had always been awfully fond of a brick of plastique and a blast-cap. As she rigged several such bricks around the garage entryway, she continued to maneuver deeper and deeper into the complex.

With two clicks of her penlight, she signaled Xiao that she was in position. The relay went around, they'd set up two ingress points, while the boys played nice and snuck in with full stealth much to the aid of Xiao's signaling, Jade was getting ready to reign down some heavy cover once they'd been given a solid hour or so to get settled, Xiao rejoining her when it was time to start the party.

She really hoped to fleece Xin, she'd be tickled pink if she could pay him back for offing Sardinas. She'd _liked_ that smart-ass, he didn't pay quite as well as the _Quests_ , but there was nothing wrong with keeping friendlies around, she also knew Korvin would be miffed to lose one of his loaners.

Taking a moment to look around, she scouted out an egress path. So far, she had three exit strategies to fall back on.

Xiao signaled the Quests had infiltrated the main building, she began moving counterclockwise, they had more work to do out here.

Following suite, Jade moved clockwise, still laying her own snares and traps, and more importantly plastique with different charge lengths throughout the grounds. They'd be able to draw several clusters and hopefully keep enough of a gap to get back out undetected, however, if they _were_ detected, she had an even _bigger_ bang in store.

-CJQ-

Xiao took Hadji over to a particularly sturdy tree, feeding up rope while the boy made the climb. As they'd discussed, Hadji began wrapping the long coil of rope around and around and around the trunk and at the large branch to help secure it further. Once he'd tied it off, Xiao climbed up to follow. With a tethered Gatling hook, and wire, she took aim for a section of roof with no windows nearby. At the blind-spot, she fired and reeled back the hook until it felt secure. With fast ministrations, she tied the line to the fortified tree. Hadji, meanwhile, climbed up higher on the tree and repeated the motions.

On the same patch of roof, Xiao made similar work to the first bit of zip-line. The grade of each course was 32°, just enough to facilitate speed, but not require brakes, particularly when coming at a tree.

"Hadji, did you see how I secured these?" She asked quietly. The youth nodded. "Good. Then you will travel to the roof. You are the lightest of us. Make sure both lines are secured very well. You and I would be fine, but our traveling companions would not fare so well by wire if you do not."

"Yes ma'am." Hadji said dutifully. He took up the figure-eight wheel slide and put the wire between the two wells. Taking a firm grip of the two cranks, he kicked off. The modified bike gears had chain that would help facilitate him if he lost momentum, but Xiao had warned him that he did not want to lose momentum, bicycling by hand more than half a kilometer would be quite tiring, and falling at a minimum fifteen meters would be quite painful.

"Hadji, _be careful_." Benton whispered up to his ward and watched him as he flew.

Xiao left the remaining duo to further her own inroads. After several minutes, Race spotted the quick signal via high-power penlight. He nodded, gave Benton a look, the redhead took the line first saving the heaviest for last, both for the climb up and the ride down.

At the rooftop, he slipped the handle back into his pack next to the two reserves he had- one for Jade, and one for Jonny. He retrieved the ray gun from his bag and holstered it to his belt under his jacket.

Race was there within moments, similarly tidying up and arming up, the trio made their way to the vent shaft. With quick work, Benton disabled the large fan that helped pull air in with a strong electromagnet, he set the timer for three minutes. The magnet, as secured to the vent shaft would pin the fan blade closest and hold it open as long as the charge was good, but once the magnet let off, the blades would continue to move, undetected for the wear. He turned on the device and stopped the 6-foot fan from drawing it in. Going first, he helped Hadji through, once Race was cleared, he turned the magnet off. The fan started to grind back up, the gentle airflow was brisk, but constant.

In a military crawl, they made their way to the middle of the top floor before finding descending ductwork.

From their earlier scouting of the building, Benton was certain Jonny would be toward the basement or sub-basement levels, those rooms were much easier to guard and had far less escape routes, they'd be ideal for derisible attempts to mollify an intractable escape artist.

-CJQ-

The young boy puffed out his chest as he palmed the seam to the doorway. "Race, there's just _gotta_ be a trigger for it, _somewhere_."

The man gave him a patient smile, "I know, kiddo, I know. But we haven't found it yet."

"It's been _hours_ … where could dad and Hadji be?" Jonny was starting to get frustrated, it didn't help that he hadn't eaten since breakfast and was starving, or that his arm was _still_ aching. He didn't want to tell Race, either, but he was starting to wonder if maybe it wasn't just bruised from that earlier tumble. He reached above the door looking for any finger-catch or other subtle latch.

With a squeak, Jonny found the ground to no longer be under him. He felt a crushing grip at his wrist as he looked down and saw his feet dangle to a thirty foot drop, his eyes drifted up to see Race who'd dove for the save. "Nice catch… I don't think that's the right button."

The man hoisted him up, "Think light thoughts, Jonny." Once back on the steady floor, Race eyed the cavern, the drop itself was bad enough, but the trap door was barely big enough for an adult to go through. He touched the finger-catch and the trap door closed. "Okay, I think we need to just sit tight, kiddo."

With a sulk, Jonny nodded. The room had five or six seams like that, and if that one was a drop, who knew what the others might house—spikes, poison gas? Sure, one might be a door out, or it could be the door to the other side of kingdom come.

"Race… do you think we could get through the vent again?"

"Probably not, kiddo. They welded a solid panel over it, and who knows if they _filled it_ first."

"Filled it? Like with what?" Jonny asked he sat next to the bodyguard, he felt wary.

The friendly relief of the smile put Jonny at ease even as the words hit his ears, "Who knows, a bag of cobras… a hornet nest, more of that knock-out gas…"

Jonny smiled, "They didn't use gas, Race. I pulled a dart outta my jean cuff." He rested his head against Race's shoulder.

"I wish dad would hurry up already. I'm _hungry_."

"Hi, Hungry, I'm Race. Nice to meet you." He extended a hand to Jonny to shake.

The doofy laugh that earned bounced off the wall. "Aw, man, Race, that was _bad_." He chuckled a bit more. He noticed Race wasn't retracting his hand and looked at it questioningly.

Jonny put his hand in Race's only to find his arm tugged forward, "Ow! Hey, careful with the merchandise…"

Race turned his arm a little forward and aft, "Did she wrench it on you?"

The boy winced marginally but tried to suppress it. "Aw, there's no putting anything past you. Just a little, I think it's just bruised." He lied. The wilting look Race gave him made him doubt he'd bought it.

As he opened his mouth to speak the door opened. Jonny darted up to his feet, Race half jumping himself, still gripping the boy's arm carefully. He saw the flash of metal in Jonny's waistband and realized he'd squirreled a spare away.

"Ah, young Mr. Quest, Mr. Bannon, a pleasure as always." Dr. Xin said from behind a row of men. "I apologize for not coming to visit _sooner_ , but I was slightly preoccupied by your insufferable shenanigans."

"Yeah, well, one of these days you _could_ stop inviting us over." Jonny shot back with bravado.

"And miss out your cheery companionship?" The sneer he gave Jonny made Race pull the boy behind his back.

"What do you want, now, Xin?" Race said in a low gravelly cadence.

The delightful laugh that earned him made Jonny's skin crawl. "Why, to converse with young Jonny in private, for a start," Xin nodded at two of his lackeys who moved forward.

Race's hand shot behind Jonny's back and pulled the pistol from his waistband. He disengaged the safety and took aim at the one in front and fired. Nothing. He pressed the drop for the magazine to release it to the ground, the loaded magazine was exactly what he feared—this one was a _dud_. Coming out swinging, he charged the man he'd otherwise have shot, three more guards poured in to swarm the man.

Jonny pressed himself flush to the wall, he edged around the dog-pile. "Race! You can do it Race!"

"Jonny, get _outta_ here and _run_!" He ordered as he took a sucker punch to the gut while two goons pinned back his arms.

Weighing his options, Jonny gave a curt nod and made a mad dash through his narrow opening only to take a blow himself as he got through the door.

He crumpled over, curling into his stomach from the kick that took him half a foot off the ground before returning him to it in a lump. He was hoisted back up in one smooth tug of his already sore arm and made to stand.

"This way, if you please." Xin chided, Jonny's eyes locked on in horror with Race as he was pummeled ruthlessly, the flash of black steel turned the man's shirt-sleeve sticky as the knife caught him.

" _RACE!_ "

The soldier, the same lady from before, pulled him taut as she dragged him per _her_ whim. As he was pulled along, he caught sight of a dart of copper-red hair. The view numbed him, momentarily as the woman yanked him along. He shook his head as if to clear it, turned his feet to make the drag even more begrudging.

"Quit it, lady!" He threw himself away from her tight grip which earned him a trip head-first into the wall. With her grip on his arms he wasn't able to catch himself before his head whipped into the corner, a ribbon of red spilt from his rapidly puffing upper lip along the split. The contact with the corner having just missed his nose, had landed squarely from his eyebrow to lip with a sickening force, his feet dragged with an unnatural weight as he tried to make them cooperate again, he leaned toward the wall even still as she dragged him. She shook him for good measure as she forced him to march with her.

He saw a blur of white and red shove the woman off him as he slid to the ground.

"Jonny! Come on, get up, we've gotta _move_."

Pulled yet again to his feet, and yet again without his legs' cooperation, he was stumbling in a new direction now.

"…Race…?" He asked weakly, everything was spinning faster and faster, and his head _ached_. He saw the tacky dark red stain on Race's already red sleeve and made an effort to move with more coordination in the direction he'd seen his father's visage. As if that pulled him out of his faze, he leaned his run toward the T in the hallway. "Race, this way…"

The man obliged, taking the lead as he pulled Jonny, the boy almost airborne by his long strides, barely able to keep his feet under him.

There was a second sickening crack, and then Jonny felt like he really _was_ flying through the air—Race spilt to the floor, his own father over the man with a commandeered obelisk of some sort.

"Dad! That's Race!" Jonny warned as he pushed himself up off the floor, rushing back toward his dad to stop him from hitting the man _again_. A hand shot to his shoulder making his head whip on a pivot.

His pupils shrank, there were two… there were two Races, he turned to look at Race on the ground, "DAD STOP! It's RACE!" He pulled out from the white-haired man's grip. He didn't think he understood what could have happened, but he managed to scramble between his dad and the man on the ground before he could strike him a third time.

"Jonny!" Benton wrapped his arms around his son pulling him to a tight hug before pushing him back to look at the boy who definitely looked worse for the wear. He was bleeding from the brow and lip, and he definitely saw him wince at the motion.

"…Dad…" He said in a dwindling voice. "What's going on? Why're you…"

"Doc, come on, we have to get him out of here." Race reached back toward Jonny and past him to Benton's arm.

With a fierce nod, he clambered over the other man's prone features only to feel a hand grab his ankle.

"Run, doc…tor." The hand released.

Jonny was being spirited away as his eyes affixed on the man on the floor, "Dad! We can't just _leave_ him!"

"Son, that _isn't_ Race! It's _Korchev_ , he's been lying to you this whole time."

Defiantly, Jonny turned his feet to slow his pull, "Dad, he's NOT."

Dr. Quest scooped his son up in a swift motion to put the kibosh on this tug of war that he was sure was going to hurt the boy's thin ankles if he kept it up. The blond fell into his dad's aerial tug and was squared into his chest. The man started the run again.

"… _But dad!_ "

"Son, Race and I were together the whole time we were _here_. We didn't _leave_ here until Jade shot us a distress call. That man _isn't_ Race. He's been duping you."

He looked at his son's eyes in time to see his spirit seem to deflate at the reveal. "…But… he saved my _life_ …"

"And you just saved his. We're getting out of here." They stopped in front of a stairwell.

"Doc, I can get him up the steps," he touched his headset, "Hadji, are the stairs still clear?"

"Yes sir," crackled the earpiece.

Jonny was passed to Race who gripped him behind the thighs with one arm. Jonny could see the ring on his left hand and turned to look at his dad as if realizing the weight of it all.

"…R-Race?"

"Come on kiddo, keep your head in the game. Help a guy out and take hold."

Jonny nodded slowly, wrapped his arms around Race's neck loosely so that he wouldn't shift too much as the man took the stairs in a sprint, Dr. Quest keeping close behind him. He figured his dad could've overtaken them but wanted to be that buffer between he and Xin.

His head was beginning to throb something terrible.

At the top floor, the wailing sirens more than alerts to intruders were issuing evacuation orders as explosions rocked parts of the building.

Jonny watched with tearing eyes as thin trails of smoke wafted from beneath the stairwell doors. He cradled his head with his right hand, arm aching terribly. Race had set him down at the top of the steps, he could see Hadji as his best friend and brother rushed to him to proffer a sincere hug and help him keep to his feet.

"Jonny, are you alright?"

He shook his head, "…Nodt rearlly." He slurred, "Het herds."

With a swaggering gait, he shifted toward the path Hadji guided him.

Dr. Quest and Race communicated the urgency with a single shared look. "Hadji, let me." Race hefted Jonny up.

"Aw… I c'n wok rearlly," Jonny's eyes rolled upward as he collapsed.

"We need to get him back, pronto. Hadji, on the double," Race ordered.

On the roof, both men were thinking on the logistics, Race was the first to pull out the 1/8th shock cord to tether Jonny to his dad.

"Doc, pick him up, I'll get him secured. Never thought I'd be doing this, though."

"I appreciate that the thought of tying up my son hasn't crossed your mind. I can't say I haven't had my moment."

Race chortled as he tethered Jonny's wrists, draped around his dad's neck, then wrapped a cord around their chests, and another around the boy's thighs then across the small of his back and secured to Benton's core, looping the boy's thighs again in a modified harness.

In all, it took him three minutes to do it, Jonny let out a whimper as Race's spot-check of tugs came to his arms.

"…" Dr. Quest could feel the burning look on the back of his neck. "What is it Race?"

"Doc, you're good to go. Just hold on." He slung the zip-line glider onto the line and steadied it for the scientist.

"Geronimo…!" He called as he kicked off, gripping the rig's handles tightly. His arms burned at the added pull of Jonny's weight to his own. That there was no safety harness and that there was a fifteen meter drop if he mucked this up didn't hit him until he was traveling at not less than 30mph. The boy's weight shifted as the drag pulled at his unconscious form.

A shift put added pressure on his right arm and he let out a biting gasp, his eyes shot open, dizzied by an intense vertigo.

"Jonny, I've got you, _keep still_." Benton tried to call over the wind, the confirming nod as the boy seemed to tuck up was a good sign.

As they came closer to the tree the line tied back to, Benton pushed at the handles to act as a brake-pad. Hardly a good one, it barely halved their speed, he kicked up his legs to brace against the impact and protect Jonny's back. Though rocky, he stuck the landing and eyed the rope ladder. With new-found respect for the soldiers who regularly trained under such weight sets, he climbed down the nearly 30 feet to the bottom of the tree line only getting horribly tangled twice.

Hands reaching back, he worked to loosen the coils and undo the shock cord. He was glad to see Jonny was conscious and cognizant enough to loop his arms out from over his head, it looked like his right arm hung lower than his left though.

Unfelling the last of it, he spotted Race descending the rope ladder after disassembling the zip-line to prevent any would-be pursuers.

"How is he?"

Jonny let out a low groan.

"Jonny, sit down for a little bit," Benton put a hand on his left shoulder.

"…So _dizzy_ …" he responded.

More and more explosions rocked the compound, the orange flames shooting across the pitch-dark mountainside.

"Jade says your chariot awaits." Hadji smiled and gave a bow as he pointed back toward the military vehicle.

"Thanks, Hadji, I think we've outstayed our welcome aplenty." Race offered, he shot a hand out to Jonny to help hoist him up. He wasn't sure how to take it when the boy didn't immediately take it, his eyes just dancing over the skin as if unsure.

"Oh, right, Dr. Quest, this belongs to _you_." He pulled off the borrowed wedding band with some effort. "Hopefully Jade won't think I was playing too hard to get."

Blue eyes shot him a smarmy look of reproach while putting his wedding band back on his own left ring finger before returning his gaze over his wounded son.

"Jonny, let's get going." He could see the boy still watching Race's hand, his left one finally extending toward where Race's arm had moved.

The white haired agent gripped his wrist firmly and gave him a swift tug upward. Race helped him hoof it to the hummer before sliding into the driver's seat.

As they all piled in, they made the drive in silence, Jonny watching the fire burning from the side-view mirror, his face painted in pain.

-CJQ-

The Quest Compound, Florida Keys, two days later…

Lying back on a beach blanket, Jonny dozed in the sunlight with his blue sling and yellow swim trunks. The crack is his lip speckled brown, and the one-and-a-half inch square gauze bandage over his forehead mostly obscured by oversized sunglasses as he snoozed, mouth slightly apart.

Bandit kicked up sand onto the blanket as he happily buried his latest catch—a live crab.

Kathy brought over a tray of lemonade, jell-o cups, and a paper cup of pills.

With a gentle tap, she shook Jonny out of dreamland. "Up and at it, buckaroo!"

Jonny rolled toward his right with a groan, his eyes shooting open when he jarred his arm and sat up with a start. "Ow! Ow…"

"Careful there, Jonny…" Kathy winced in sympathy. "Have some lemonade?"

Jonny looked through his sunglasses at his dad's fiancée. "Thanks Kathy…" he said as his wits were coming back to him. He was surprised the see the woman joining him instead of moving the tray on to the others.

"How are you feeling, sweetie?"

She smoothed down her capris as she took a seat, she crossed her ankles as she sat on her derrière.

He gave a dark, breathy half-laugh, "I feel like the _worst_." His eyes scanned the cheerful beach that did anything to antagonize his mood. Hadji and Race were tossing a Frisbee, Bandit was now trying to bury the live crab _again_ in a _new_ spot, pesky thing kept deciding to go where _it_ wanted to go… he didn't see where his dad had gotten to, though, he shrugged and looked back at Kathy.

"The worst?" She queried.

"I've known Race for almost half of my life… and I couldn't figure out that guy wasn't _him_ … I probably wouldn't even recognize my own m—never mind." He looked down, not wanting to hurt his soon to be step mother's feelings. "…and this _headache_ is just the pits."

"Why don't you take your medicine for that, then?" She prompted, pushing the paper thimble toward him. He rolled his eyes as he took it in his left hand, emptied the cup into his mouth then picked up the lemonade with his left hand and took a hardy gulp.

"…Thanks, ma'am." He said abjectly. His left hand moved toward his soft cast to scratch an itch, in vane as the cast was too thick to penetrate.

"There you are, son." Benton looked at Kathy, smiled, happy she hadn't given up his proximity when asking about the boy, he could be stubbornly introspective sometimes.

"…Hey, dad…" he frowned, the fog of the headache not making him think on how much his dad had eavesdropped.

"You're starting to get a little pink, why don't we head inside and pop a movie on."

He gave a shrug, "…I _guess_." With his left hand, he pushed himself up. Once he was on his feet, he bent over to grab the blanket corner.

"Oh, you might as well leave this out, I'll take some sun for a few minutes." Kathy smiled, happy to give Benton a few minutes to talk with Jonny. As if realizing the trap was sprung only a second too late, Jonny turned to look at his dad.

"…" He shot the man a pitiful look.

"Kettle-corn or buttered popcorn?" Benton interjected.

Jonny shrugged indifferently, "What movie?"

"I thought you'd like to pick." He put a firm hand on Jonny's left shoulder, planting him in the spot so he couldn't take off on him. Jonny's eyes swept over the beach again, he saw Race signal a wave, his left hand shot up automatically to wave back, he felt like a cad.

"…Oh. I don't really care, you can pick something." He let out a long yawn, his nap in the sun not fully worked from his system. "Just nothing _too loud_ …"

"Alright, let's head in then."

Inside the media room, Jonny plopped onto the right side of the couch, leaving the spot in the center open for his dad, a large bowl of buttered popcorn was placed in front of him on the coffee table as his dad shuffled through the discs until he found the proffered title, a Charlie Chaplin comedy, the silent film was full of slapstick and gesturing humor, and best of all, had a quiet soundtrack.

As Charlie Chaplin struggled to rescue the mermaid from the fish tank, Jonny was smiling despite himself. When he got slapped by said rescued mermaid, he was laughing, and when Charlie unceremoniously dumped her back _into_ the fish tank, he was practically rolling on the floor. He leaned his head toward his dad's shoulder then froze as if remembering the events from a few days back.

Watching his son's spirits sour, he turned to look at the boy.

Jonny forced himself to stand up, which was a lot harder without using the arm of the deep seated couch.

"Jonny, he isn't mad you know."

The boy turned, his eyes were watery, "Why the heck not? _I_ am!"

"Well, he's not mad at _you_. Korchev was specially trained to do what he did. He was supposed to target us, he probably wouldn't be anywhere near as effective on anyone else."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better? Race is practically family and I can't tell him apart from some bozo doing a half-ass impersonation of him?"

"Language, and it's not half-baked. You said so yourself, he went so far as to _save your life_. And that was _after_ you destroyed Xin's comm-links." His dad gave him a proud smile, "You know, I saw your handiwork, it reminded me of the time you fried one of _my_ systems…"

"…Try, fail, learn, try again, and fail better." Jonny gave a slight smile, "I figured he'd wire in an auto-run and auto-destruct if anyone tried to hack it, but if I shorted the motherboard… well, then it's just a paperweight."

"I'll keep that in mind in my future design specs."

Jonny sat back down into the deep couch, leaning toward his dad. "I just feel like he _played me_."

"Xin did, it's what he truly excels at. But _you_ stopped him, and that's what _you_ do best." He put an arm around Jonny's shoulders, careful of his broken arm. He, personally, was livid at the bumps and bruises his son was covered in. "But if you really want to needle Xin, you'll get past this. That's how you really beat him."

"But how will that prevent it from happening _again_ , dad?"

"With Korchev?" He asked, contemplating the answer himself.

Jonny nodded.

"…Was there ever a moment you had a nagging feeling that it wasn't what it seemed?"

He bowed his head, "…I did, when he said we were _gassed_. I knew I'd gotten darted, so it didn't make sense they'd use two things… but then, I was kinda disoriented from it, so I thought Race was just outta it too."

"Then if you ever get that weird kind of feeling again, we'll have a code word, or a gesture or a joke… something that just the _family_ knows, and if you feel uneasy about it, you give the prompt and he'll give the answer. Like asking a question but getting the completely wrong answer, one someone wouldn't just guess on. Race and I were going to do that if it came to blows, in case Korchev played the shell game—the captain, Xiao, the general had made a joke about her age to hide that she was very young—she was probably a child soldier, but to hide that, he said she was a 7000 year old dragon. She countered and said she was only a 3000 year old dragon, so we decided we'd use _that_ as our signal."

"A 7000 year old dragon?"

"Yes, and if asked again, only 3000 years old."

"That is pretty funny." Jonny smiled, "So dad, does Kathy know you proposed to Race too?"

Benton laughed at his son's barb. "Oh it hardly counted, I didn't get on bent knee, he said as much himself."

Kathy's laugh caught Benton's ear, "Oh really? So no bent knee, no good? I think I get a do-over then."

The redhead gave the bespeckled brunette a saucy look, "Really? Jonny, you might want to divert your eyes."

"Oh no… not mooshy stuff!" The boy groaned, rolling away from the adults to hide his face as his dad went down on his knee and took hold of Kathy's hand.

"Marry me, my love."

"Well, then, that's more like it." She winked, leaned over to give him a quick kiss while Jonny lashed about, mortified.

"Darn, two-timed already. Well, I guess I'm just going to have to commit to being a confirmed bachelor." Race said as he walked into the room. "Hey, Jonny, why don't you come into the kitchen with me? We can eat some ice cream to darn my broken heart."

Looking between his choices, Jonny gave a rigorous nod and quickly followed suite to join Race in the kitchen alongside Hadji and Bandit to a heaping helping of vanilla ice cream. Race even dug out some rocky-road for himself. "When you boys are older you'll understand that tradition." He teased as he took a scoop of the chocolaty ice cream.

As they ate the ice cream, Jonny smiled, "Race, if I'm ever in a spot like that again… can our code word be rocky-road engagement? Like, what's your least favorite ice cream? Rocky-road engagement."

Race laughed, "It wouldn't be the first time my safe word was marriage."

"…Huh?" Jonny asked.

"Nothing, kiddo, yeah, I think we can make that work. Hadji, what about you?"

"I think I would like my trick question to be…" He leaned close and whispered.

"Hey! Hadji, no fair! You know _my_ question and answer!"

Race's face blanched. "Uh, you and I need to work on that, that one won't fly."

Hadji laughed as he sat back, taking another spoonful of ice cream.

"Oh come on! What did he say!" Jonny demanded, feeling left out of the joke.

"I'll tell you when you're older."

-End-


End file.
